Hyundai is extremely proud of the new 2011 Sonata‘s fuel economy, even making it the focal point at the car’s launch event earlier this year. To see just how fuel efficient it is, Wayne Gerdes of CleanMPG.com and a hypermiling expert is going to attempt to drive 1,000 miles on a single tank of gas. His plan is to drive from Milwaukee, WI to New York City – roughly 1,000 miles.
To achieve this goal, he’ll need to squeeze over 54-mpg out of every gallon of gas in the Sonata’s 18.5 gallon tank. That’s well above the Sonata’s 35-mpg highway rating, but not an entirely unrealistic goal, based on our own experience.
Back at the Sonata launch event we achieved a third place finish in Hyundai’s fuel economy challenge, managing 46.8-mpg. The first place team were able to get an amazing 52.8-mpg.
The world record for the most miles traveled on a single tank of gas is held by the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which managed 1445 miles.
We’ll keep you updated on the result.
[Source: CleanMPG via AutoblogGreen]
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I am not impressed. Really, I am not. Show me 1000 miles via normal driving habits and conditions. Some of the things those hyper-milers do is either not safe, not legal, or bad for the car. One hyper-miler I read about would near 55 MPH on an off-ramp so he could turn off the motor and coast to the nearby grocery store…in a 25 MPH zone.
The one and only safe technique that I read about and I use is I coast toward red lights. I drive a manual, so I engage the clutch and not need to turn my truck off. My daily commute is the same route, so I have gotten pretty good at timing the series of lights through the town.
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:19 am